Catheter support

ABSTRACT

A catheter support has a yoke attached to a base plate by a resilient beam capable of accommodating limited motion of the catheter without pulling the catheter from the patient. The base plate has an adhesively-backed surface for placement on a patient&#39;&#39;s body surface.

[ 5] Nov. 14, 1972 United States Patent Schlesinger .248/205 A Robinson....... 248/74 A CATHETER SUPPORT 3,516,631 6/1970 Santucci............... 72 Inventor: Robert M. Schlesinger, 25 Gardner 1,429,776 9/1922 Road, Brookline, Mass. 02146 March 1,1971

Primary Examiner-Dalton L. Truluck Attorney-Cesari & McKenna 22] Filed:

[57] ABSTRACT A catheter support has a yoke attached to a base plate 'by a resilient beam capable of accommodating limited [2i] Appl. No.: 122,639

motion of the catheter without pulling thev catheter from the patient. The base plate has an adhesivelybacked surface for placement on a patients' body surface.

@AM 2 /5 .053 G2 Wm4 m41 3 H Wm 3 1 W4 2 3 l 3 R, m 0 2 u T n a M 5 m e U I 1] 2 00 5 s5 v1* Fi ur References Cited lllflI'lED STATES PATENTS 11/1966 gu d................... .123 343x PATENTEDnuv 14 I972 FIG. 3

INJENTOQ ROBERT M. SCHLESINGEP.

ATTORNELS CATHETER SUPPORT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to catheters, and comprises a catheter support which can accommodate limited motion of the catheter without slippage and without pulling on the patient. This application is a refile of US. Pat. application, Ser. No. 804,226 filed Mar. 4,

1969 by the same applicant and now abandoned.

2. Prior Art Catheters provide drainage from body cavities. To prevent their involuntary withdrawal when the patient makes slight movements, it is necessary to clamp the catheters to the patient in some manner. Heretofore this was commonly done by means of suturingor by adhesively attaching the catheter to the patient, either directly or with an intermediary dressing. v

Care must be taken to ensure that the catheter is not clamped too tightly or at too frequent intervals to the patients body to prevent unnecessary tissue trauma. Furthermore, a certain amount of looseness in the catheter betweenclamping points must be provided to ensure that the catheter does not pull away from the patient during slight movements. Inexperienced personnel most frequently offend in one or more of these areas and thus often cause patient discomfort and sometimes severe harm.

Devices having a semi-rigid, deformable, but nonresilient body for holding an infusion needle in prescribed relation to a body surface are also known. However, these cannot accommodate any significant motion of the infusion device relative to the body surface without suffering the infusion device to slip relative to it. Thus, they are unsuitable for use as catheter supports of the type described herein.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A. Objects of the Invention Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a catheter support.

Another object of the invention is to provide a catheter support that is quickly and simply attached to,

' or removed from, the body of a patient.

A further object of the invention is to provide a catheter support that inherently provides some freedom of movement of the catheter when necessary without pulling the catheter from the patient.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a catheter support that is inexpensive to manufacture and simple to use even by inexperienced personnel.

B. Brief Description of the Invention The catheter support of the present invention is formed from a yoke attached to a base plate by a resilient beam. The yoke receives the catheter and clamps it in place, while the resilient beam accommodates itself to limited movements of the catheter caused, for example, by limited patient movements, without pulling the catheter from the patient. The base plate has an adhesively-backed surface which is readily mounted on a patients body.

LII

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention will be explained in connection with the preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of a catheter support in accordance with my invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the catheter support of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the catheter support of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a view in perspective of the catheter support of FIG. 1.

As shown in the drawings, the catheter support comprises a yoke 1 connected to a base plate 4 by means of a resilient beam 2. A pedestal 3 on the base plate 4 pro vides additional mounting support for the beam 2.

An adhesive layer 6 is spread over the lower surface of the base plate 4. A removable protective backing layer 7 is placed over the adhesive layer 6 to prevent its adhesion to other objects until the backing layer 7 is removed. A lip 5 having a recess 8 is formed along one side of the base plate 4; the lip 5 provides a surface which is readily grasped when it is desired to remove the backing layer 7 from the base plate 4 or when the support is to be removed from the body of a patient after having been adhesively affixed to it.

The beam 2 is formed from a resilient material, conveniently'a plastic, which is capable of bending to accommodate a limited movement of the catheter while snugly retaining the catheter in the yoke. This ensures that limited movement of the patient will not dislodge the catheter or inadvertently pull the catheter from the patient. The degree of allowed movement will, of course, be determined by the nature of the material chosen and by the length and cross-sectional shape of the beam. By properly proportioning the beam, movement in both directions may be accommodated or the movement may be restricted to a single direction if desired. The yoke and base plate may likewise advantageously be formed from a plastic material and may be molded integral with the beam for economy of manufacture.

When a catheter is to be fixed in place, the backing layer 7 is removed from the base plate 4 and the support is lightly pressed against the patients body with the adhesive layer 6 in contact with the body in the desired location. The catheter is then pressed into the yoke 1 which is selected to be of a size sufficient to accommodate the catheter snugly therein. The catheter is thus securely positioned on the body in the desired location, but limited motion of the catheter is allowed by the support.

From the foregoing it will be seen that l have provided an improved catheter support capable of firmly positioning acatheter on a patients body while accommodating limited movement of the catheter without pulling on the patient. Various changes may be made in the dimensioning, arrangement and construction of the parts without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention and it is intended that all matter shown and described herein be taken as illustrative only, the scope of the invention being defined in the claims.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A catheter support comprising A. a yoke for receiving a catheter therein, said yoke comprising a generally C-shaped member providing catheter engaging means permitting entry and release of said catheter;

B. a base plate having means thereon for attachment to the skin of a patient; 7

C. an upstanding beam attached to said base at the lower end thereof and connected to said yoke at its upper end, said yoke being spaced at a fixed position from the base plate by said beam when no external forces are applied to the catheter; said beam being resiliently deformable in at least one direction parallel to the base plate in response to a limited movement of the catheter in said direction whereby the movement of said catheter may be accommodated by the beam without pulling the catheter from the patient.

2. A catheter support according to claim 1 in which the beam has a substantially greater resiliency in one direction than in the transverse direction, whereby movement of the catheter in the one direction is more freely accommodated than in the transverse direction.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the yoke and the beam are formed integral with each other and from a plastic material of sufiicient resiliency to accommodate the desired bending in the beam.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the yoke, the beam, and the base plate are formed integral with each other and of a plastic material of sufficient resiliency to accommodate the desired bending in the beam.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 in which the base plate includes 1. an adhesive backing on one face thereof for fixing the support directly to a patients skin;

2. a removable cover over said adhesive; and

3. means forming an adhesive-free lip on a portion thereof for grasping while removing said cover.

t I! l l 

1. A catheter support comprising A. a yoke for receiving a catheter therein, said yoke comprising a generally C-shaped member providing catheter engaging means permitting entry and release of said catheter; B. a base plate having means thereon for attachment to the skin of a patient; C. an upstanding beam attached to said base at the lower end thereof and connected to said yoke at its upper end, said yoke being spaced at a fixed position from the base plate by said beam when no external forces are applied to the catheter; said beam being resiliently deformable in at least one direction parallel to the base plate in response to a limited movement of the catheter in said direction whereby the movement of said catheter may be accommodated by the beam without pulling the catheter from the patient.
 2. A catheter support according to claim 1 in which the beam has a substantially greater resiliency in one direction than in the transverse direction, whereby movement of the catheter in the one direction is more freely accommodated than in the transverse direction.
 2. a removable cover over said adhesive; and
 3. means forming an adhesive-free lip on a portion thereof for grasping while removing said cover.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the yoke and the beam are formed integral with each other and from a plastic material of sufficient resiliency to accommodate the desired bending in the beam.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the yoke, the beam, and the base plate are formed integral with each other and of a plastic material of sufficient resiliency to accommodate the desired bending in the beam.
 5. Apparatus according to claim 4 in which the base plate includes 